Tuesday, October 24, 2006

The World Gave Us Four Days

Not including the British, of course, who have, for the most part, been staunch allies. The rest of the world gave us four days of support following the al Qaeda terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. It was a dead heat between the French and the Russians over who would squirt in their pants first.

This story from the September 15, 2001 issue of the Guardian documents the cowardice (and, as we learned later, the Europeans and Russians were motivated by venality as well) and how Tony Blair immediately rose to meet the historic challenge:

Tony Blair is unequivocal that Britain should participate fully in the expected US military action. He told a packed Commons, recalled to emergency session yesterday: "Murder of British people in New York is no different in nature from their murder in the heart of Britain itself. In the most direct sense, therefore, we have not just an interest, but an obligation to bring those responsible to account."

But France signalled that it would not automatically support military action. "Our humane, political and functional solidarity [with the US] does not deprive us of our sovereignty and freedom to make up our own minds," the French prime minister, Lionel Jospin, maintained. [spoken like a true, mincing nancyboy. Enjoy your Islamist riots while Paris burns, pussies.-Bluto]

Russia, which initially offered enthusiastic support, was adamant that it would not participate in any "revenge'' attacks. The Russian defence minister, Sergei Ivanov, said there was no chance of the US being allowed to launch attacks from the former Soviet republic. [The Russians found out what was what when Islamists butchered their children in Beslan three years later.-Bluto]

One of the reasons that several European foreign ministries are growing anxious is that the possibility is gaining credibility of a second Gulf war against Iraq to finish off the job begun in 1991 by toppling the Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein.